July 2007

Tuesday, 24 July 2007

if you get npr, have a listen to talk of the nation today. todd helmus will be on to speak about a book that my friend lauren edited and i proofread: enlisting madison avenue: the marketing approach to earning popular support in theaters of operation. lauren also took one of the two cover photos (one is in theater in iraq; the other is on madison avenue. guess which one she took on a long weekend trip?). you can download a copy for free or read it online (or even just a summary of it), or you can buy a copy inexpensively and support the nonprofit, nonpartisan thinktank for which i work.

Sunday, 22 July 2007

this is hrumph.
really, his name is hrumpherton j. findleperry, but he lets his friends call him hrumph. some people think he's grumpy, but really he has one thing that makes him truly happy, one talent that he really wishes he could use all the time: helping us cope with the indignities we suffer. he understands, he explained to me as i was seaming him up, indignity: he, after all, is a monster, yet was knitted from *pink cotton,* of all things. he has a floppy, soft, fuzzy fern where most monsters have scary horns.
he has three stumpy feet where most monsters (and any other kind of creature) have either two or four real legs. and he has no mouth, though he says that this makes him an excellent listener (he can communicate with thought to those he loves). and he has a tail with three knots in it.
this, he says, helps him understand what indignity is. i told him about my friends karen and joe and the indignities that they're suffering right now, and he nearly teared up in his little black cotton french-knot eyes. he said he would like very much to go live with them and help them cope with their troubles. naturally, this was my intent for him all along, but it's nice to let him think it was his idea.

Thursday, 19 July 2007

if you're not on ravelry yet, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. i made some notes today about how i used it today, which was a pretty light ravelring day for me.
i'm knitting a pair of socks from an online pattern. i don't have to print or even bookmark the pattern; it's in my projects in my ravelry notebook, so i just go to my projects and click the pattern. i can note which round i'm on and any mods i make as i go right there in my notes field. ravelry has noted that it's one of my wips, so it's right at the top of my projects tab, the first, default page of my notebook.
i browsed through what projects people are making or have made with yarns i have in my stash, to get ideas for things i might make and see how their projects have turned out. i can see progress and finished-object photos as well as yardage requirements and, for patterns available online, click through to the patterns themselves. i can even read comments that people have about the things they've made, seeing, for example, whether they're happy with them or not and why.
i can make notes in the stash part of my notebook about what i bought that yarn for or what i might want to use it for (especially after browsing the patterns), since i can track how much i have and the patterns tell me how much i'd need.
i can send messages to users to ask them questions about things they've made.
and of course i can find out about patterns i never would have found otherwise. there are patterns--all in one place--from online, book, and periodical sources. everywhere imaginable. and i can see all the different versions people have made, what yarns they used, and what they thought of the pattern and their results, all with one click. if i'm not sure about a yarn, i can click through to more information about that, too.
some days i do more than this, but this is what i did today. i have loved not having to worry about bookmarking patterns on a zillion different web sites any more or remembering which books have which patterns that i'd thought about making for whom--ravelry lets me keep all of that information in one place. when i want to start another project, i can just look at the queue page of my notebook to see what i've got queued up and choose something to cast on. all the information i need is right there--where the pattern is, what i need to make it, and, if i'd thought about it, for whom i'd wanted to make it. i could even have noted by when i needed to make it. (lately, i've been noting just lots of patterns i want to make for me--bad bee.) it's delicious. see you there soon! :)

Saturday, 14 July 2007

i know. sorry, i got "the facts of life" theme song stuck in your head. i know that at least one of you has done worse to me before. (you know who you are. dunny nunny.)
so, great day. it's gorgeous outside, it's the first day of my stay-at-home vacation, i sleep in (albeit with three [3] visits from luxo-the-can't-stay-asleep-past-3-am dog and lots of long, strange dreams in there), and i start the day with like--seriously--four hours of ravelry. i'm a volunteer editor now, so i'm all like, yeah, i'll fill in all these details on all these patterns! sure! which of course is just code for, yeah, i'll spend hours and hours browsing patterns with an excuse! sure! but no worries: i'm on vacation.
then my phone (omg!) chimes (zomg!! ponies!!1!) to tell me that it has a gmail waiting for me. it's from anna, saying that they're about ready to go to the lys, if i still want to go. well, i try never to miss an opportunity to see anna, so i bolt for the shower and head on out. this is when i start to take the not so much good. not like i'm a soldier in iraq bad, but like...traffic is being detoured all up in my hood bad. so it takes me as long to drive from my house to the lys (2.4 miles) as it does anna to walk from hers (1.2 miles). and she was pushing a baby stroller. AND--get this--with an actual baby in it! figure that one out.
so anyway, i get there and park, and we shop for a bit. i found the most beautiful camel + silk yarn by handmaiden, in this deep, shimmery, coppery brown--omg beautiful. that kind of soft that makes you want to put it all inside your mouth because you're just sure it will melt like cotton candy does? only it will taste way better. like not too sweet, with a bitter undertone, and smooth finish. like that. yeah. (pardon me while i savor that for a moment.)
so i'm carrying around this skein i'm going to buy, picturing the beautiful lacy scarf i'm going to make with it for my beautiful sister-in-law, and anna is considering what to buy. her main mission: to find another skein of koigu to help her finish the socks she's making. apparently, the koigu put-up doesn't come in the yardage she needs for this sock pattern, so she needs three skeins.
so she waits off to the side for the woman behind the counter (apparently the only employee in the shop today--hello? saturday midday? but whatever--this is common practice there), who interrupts her conversation with the woman with whom she's speaking (whom i later came to learn was a customer, though, at the time, i thought she might have been an employee, since they were speaking for virtually the entire time we were there, which was, i think, nearly an hour) to ask whether anna needs something. anna asks whether the shop tracks previous purchases (no) and explains that she's trying to match dye lots. the woman tells her that they don't record dye lots (!), they just open the boxes and put everything out on the floor. (what?? well, this *is* a store owned by someone who didn't know you had to do inventory for tax purposes every year, so i guess no recordkeeping practice should surprise me.) anna thanked her, went back to looking at some other yarn for a bit, and i continued looking up front at some buttons, where i'd been before.
so i hear one of the women (don't know whether it was the one behind the counter or the one in front, but i presume that it was the one behind) mutter something to the other about it being (sarcastically) too bad that she (anna) hadn't kept track of her own purchases or bought enough the first time around for her projects. the other two comments i heard between them, though--again--since my back was turned, i couldn't tell who said which--were "you can only do so much" and "yeah, dealing with the public is just so [in a disgusted voice]."
it was at this point that i put down the (lovely) buttons (that i'd been considering for flair), marched over to the table from which i'd gotten the beautiful handmaiden yarn, put it back exactly where i'd found it, told anna about the conversation, and encouraged her to look for her dye lot online. she is nicer than i am, so she said they were probably just having a bad day, and bought the koigu anyway. i, however, am hereby boycotting my local yarn shop.
had this been an isolated incident, i'd have blamed the woman, not the shop. but this or something similar happens virtually every time i'm there, or they simply do not have what i want, every time i go in*. every time. it's a ridiculous shop. they have their little regular clique, but everyone else, as far as i can tell--or maybe it's just me and my friends, no matter who they might be that day--gets treated with a level of contempt that i have seen neither from teens making minimum wage nor from owners of the chicest, most expensive shops in town. they have no excuse for this kind of behavior; they carry absolutely nothing in that shop that i can't get online and from local yarn shops in other communities--many that just happen to do business online--who will treat me like gold. i have no problem paying more and supporting local businesses--in fact, our home renovation practices show this. but, despite the fact that i have given this business chance after chance since it opened, this was the visit that broke the camel's back. who needs a shop like that? NOT ME.
anyway, they didn't ruin the day, of course. the trip home: uneventful. smartboy and our dogs are all good and enjoying a beautiful saturday. i took a nap and am probably going to ravel some more. and knit, of course.

*i had one good finding-things experience there--the day of their sale this year--and that was it.

Saturday, 07 July 2007

i know: goofy, right? i heard a tween say it on television c. 1995. but i thought it was funny then, and i never let go. so there's the subject line.
knitting is going slowly, though i hack away at it nearly nightly. mostly, this is because i'm slogging away at a not-very-fun-to-make pattern: the retro rib socks from interweave'sfavorite socks. (a) i dislike knitting from books, because books are bulky; i prefer knitting from magazine or online patterns i can fold and mark up. (b) it involves WAY too much purling, which i do more slowly than knitting or lace. (c) it's long--it's cuff-down, and the leg portion was more than a foot long (to the bottom of the heel). ridiculous! like my father wants socks that long! and of course i didn't think about this to make them shorter until it was already done (i was on the heel flap), and i wasn't interested in ripping. so i'm using an entire skein of socks that rock for each sock (medium-weight in covelite). no, the color really couldn't be more beautiful. like chocolate. anyway, i'm hoping to have the stamina to finish the first one today (or at least this weekend), though i'm not sure i'll have the stomach to cast on the second.
i also need to block the prayer shawl. i really didn't want to set up the blocking board until the craft room was ready (at least the plaster was cleared from the closet and the floor was finished), but the shawl is otherwise just waiting. shame on me.
and my other wip is the bauhaus fair isle sweater for nate. that's a fab project--when i'm in the mood for fair isle. right now, though, after weeks of working on this stupid sock, i'm really in the mood for some speedy gratification. a beautiful sweater based on stockinette (for me)? i have oodles of patterns in my ravelry queue for that, and plenty of yarn, thanks to destash hoarding. but i also have gifts backed up and pending: something for jean's birthday (which was in may, just like dad's) and things for jen and lisa (both coming up in two weeks). i have lots and lots of sock yarn (tons of koigu from destash hoarding and socks that rock from my birthday), so socks are good candidates for these. i just have to choose better patterns. and fortunately, jen and lisa have tiny little barbie feet, so socks for them won't be as tedious as socks for dad. and then starts the august/december marathon: two nephews' birthdays, two brothers' birthdays, our wedding anniversary, our first date anniversary, smartboy's birthday, and christmas for the hugest family on the planet. or maybe it just feels that way.
everyone better love handmade socks.

Sunday, 01 July 2007

lisa and i have a long-running joke (one of many) that i can never just wait. i really can't. i'm impossibly impatient. a sign of immaturity, i know. shocking. but there it is.
so, i always try to wait until i have something to write + time to write it before i blog, but those times are increasingly spaced apart. i had composed a really funny entry yesterday morning, but too early to get to my computer, so that one didn't get written. yesterday i was way too wrapped up in designing and making a case (or cozy, if you're inclined that way) for my new iphone (it hasn't arrived yet--i'm too impatient to wait in a line for an hour, so i ordered it online and now have to wait two to four weeks + five days for shipping. no, the irony is not lost on me.) to blog.
so here i am just blogging a list. that's right: a list. get over it. i hope it's a good enough list that you'll be okay with that. it's a list of things on my mind, things on my list of things to blog about, that sort of thing. i don't even know how cohesive a list it will be. we'll see how that pans out. the cohesiveness at this point is that it's a list. let's start:
1. everybody think good thoughts for joe. his myelodysplastic syndrome has now advanced to acute myeloid leukemia (aml). soon he'll start intensive chemotherapy, and after that it's a cord-blood transplant.
2. watch this video.

(via cute overload, of course. where else?)
that's to make you smile a little before moving on. not that joe and karen shouldn't also make you smile, but you know. who doesn't love a seal that rubs its feet together to soothe itself to sleep? i mean, come on.
3. i turned 41 last week. i feel more mature, but i'm trying not to act like it. i don't want to give anyone the satisfaction. especially not lisa. she's three weeks younger than i am. big whoop.
4. wall decals. (butch and harold design called grove, via apartment therapy)i don't think i'd actually stick anything to our walls (not only because the idea of unsticking when i'm tired of it makes me cringe but also because the oh-so-lovely textured plaster would add such a nice grit to it), but i love the graphic look of some of them to use for inspiration for painted designs. you know--whenever the hell the contractor gets back to us and we actually have spaces finished enough to start painting. not that i'm irritated or anything.
5. a bed. whenever we're able to move up to the third floor (ahem. see #4--there's a staircase waiting to be replaced before that can happen), we're planning to replace the queen bed i've had since 1990(?) with a king bed (hooray!). big enough for a snoring man, his wife, and two big dogs who like to sleep horizontally across their people. the queen bed will likely become a big lounge in the living room somehow; there's more or less a plan for that. but back to the king: we both like platform beds, and not having to buy a box spring would save us some bucks. so we've been looking. lovely: this quadro bed from downtown furniture (i'm guessing i could find something similar around here?) via apartment therapy. and the worth bed from the paradigm furniture gallery. and this atlantico bed (via treehugger--bonus for this one: not only is it great-looking, but it's also made from sustainably forested wood). my guess is that we'll look at a few national, online retailers (crate and barrel, pottery barn, design within reach) and buy something through one of them, through ikea, or through one of our local modern or vintage furniture retailers (furniture emeritus, arhaus [maybe that's national], perlora, weisshouse).
6. kittens. i miss kuan yin terribly. it's been 15 months since she died, nearly 16. right around the one-year mark, i surprised myself by having serious pangs of wanting another cat. two, really--because she hated other cats so much, i could never adopt another, and this always made me sad, so i'd always said that, when she died, i'd get two the next time. maybe three or four. but at least two. and it's kitten season around here--craig's list is peppered with litters that people have rescued or let happen--hard to tell sometimes--and the shelters are posting as well. there are zillions of solid black and solid gray kittens, my favorites. i'd take an adult, too, of course; the kittens are just ubiquitous. i keep telling myself that we shouldn't take in another animal until after at least some of these renovations are finished--especially the floors--but it's hard to wait, especially since they haven't even started yet. grump grump. when we do, perhaps these (from branch home, via treehugger) will be fun and beautiful places for them to scamper.
7. the craft room. i've been giving a lot of thought to how to organize and set this up. i want to make the space flow the way the process does that i do the most (knitting). so i'm going to try to keep the left wall when you walk in be the place where the materials get stored--yarn, needles, and notions. then i'd like to have a desk and chair with pen, graph paper, and a place for the computer and some filing drawers. this would be my designing space. i don't do a ton of designing, but i've started to do a little bit, and i enjoy it. that'll probably take up the whole left (west) wall. the north wall is short, and can be the working wall--a bookshelf with my knitting books, a really comfy arm chair, and a little table for snacks and patterns while i work. i suspect that i'll usually want to work in the living room, but sometimes i will want to get in there and work for a while. just in case :). and on the east wall will be a finishing area--a set of drawers with accessories like buttons, ribbons, zippers, and whatever, a sewing machine on its table, and a big table with a blocking board and pins. finally, the closet will house gift wrapping materials and enclosed storage for finished objects. i am so happy about this room, i can't tell you. the one desk chair can be used for both designing and sewing, and the one arm chair is the only other seating, so the middle of the room will be open and the room will hopefully not feel too cramped. i'd love to do whiteboard or chalkboard on the walls for brainstorming and maintaining lists, too. and some funky graphics painted on other walls. yay :)
8. randomness: how beautiful are these wooden robots? from take-g via make. and how cool is this conversion calculator? (also via make.) according to that, i'm roughly as tall as a giraffe's neck is long.
9. yarn: i have been on a major binge lately. not only did smartboy give me a blue moon fiber arts gift certificate big enough to let me buy seven skeins of medium-weight socks that rock (yum!), but i've also been hoarding from destash. enough to make three sweaters of harrisville yarns highland style in a dark brown, debbie bliss merino dk in sort of a celery green, and a hand-dyed merino worsted in sort of a spicy pumpkin color. and just yesterday, i bought 16 (yes, 16) skeins of koigu in an assortment of colors. it's nuts. i'm trying to hold back for a while, but the deals are sometimes just too good. i'll be making lots and lots of socks for people for christmas :) also: ravelry. i've been on for a couple of weeks now, and it is sooo wonderful!
okay. that's the list for today. it's a beautiful day outside. get out and enjoy it. take your knitting. it's portable!